We are so blessed!

Dear family and friends,

 

     This has been a great week! But nothing can really beat last week and the amazing experience that I had with Elder Nelson but every day there are always incredible experiences and miracles that happen. I never know where to even start when I start my emails. I learn so much each and everyday. I guess I will start by saying how truly blessed we are to have this gospel in our lives today.

     

      My companion and I have had such a fun week. We are really starting to enjoy the work here and working with each other. We have so much fun together and it makes the work so much better when we are enjoying it along the way. This last week we reflected on the week and looked at all of our numbers for the week and realized wow, we did really well this week and we didn't even realize it. I love that because we were enjoying it so much that we didn't even realize all that we had accomplished along the way. The Green Valley ward is the best! I absolutely love the members in this ward. It is going to be so hard to leave this area. Not that I'm leaving the area but by the end of this transfer it will be about 6 months in this area so I will most likely be transferred to another area sometime soon. But I'm not thinking about that yet, I'm just enjoying this next 5 weeks that I know that I will be here.

 

     Many are wondering about some of our investigators and all those that we are working with. We have quite a few investigators but not many of them are very keen. But Michelle is one that we continue to work with each week. Oh one great thing is she has allowed her 2 girls to come to church. She is still not able to come to church because of work but its a work in progress. We just continue to fast and pray for her that she will be able to come. But we see her a couple times a week. This last week we went and played some soccer with her little girl Taniesha. It was great to pull out my old coaching skills again and bring out some fun drills I could teach her. It was so much fun to go play with her. I think it really helped Michelle to realize that we are normal people and we have a lot of fun besides just teaching. Michelle's heart is being softened little by little.

      The majority of the work has been with the less-actives though. We have so many less-actives that we are trying to encourage and help them to come back to church. Sometimes they can be a lot harder to work with then investigators because they already know what they should be doing they just haven't understood the importance behind the church and all that comes with it.

 

     In that mission conference with Elder Nelson there was also the area President for the Pacific area that spoke, Elder Hamula. He had a great talk on the grace of God. He talked about how "This power to be more than you are and to be better doesn't come all at once." He then shared one of my favorite scriptures, 2 Nephi 28:30 "line upon line, precept upon precept..."

     Lately I have been having such a hard time with this concept. I constantly ponder about how short my time is here and how the time is now for me to serve the Lord. I have such a strong desire to do what is right and to give it my all. Sometimes it overwhelms me because I know that I have so many weaknesses and I have so much that I could do better. But I loved this talk because it helped me to understand that as long as I'm doing my very best than God's grace will help me along the way. A member of our ward also talked on this principle and I liked what he said when he talked about how its not about the speed we are going in life, it is all about the direction we are heading. We are all going to fall at times but as long as we are heading in the right direction towards our Heavenly Father than everything else will fall into place. That really gave me so much strength to know that as long as I'm moving and striving to do what is right to the best of my ability than that is all that I can do. Of course I make mistakes. I make mistakes everyday but I'm striving to do better each day. I'm learning so much each and everyday, I absolutely love being a missionary!

  The commitment I leave with all of you is to read the talk given by Elder Russell M. Nelson in this last conference entitled, "Decisions for Eternity." It is a great talk and it really helped me to realize the importance of the decisions that we make each day. Read those scriptures, there is great power in the scriptures and they will help you to know what you need to do in your life. They will help you to become who God wants you to become. I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and all of the standard works. This is an incredible church and we are blessed to have the fulness of the gospel here upon the earth.

I love you all very much! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Pray for missionary opportunities and I know that you will find them.

Love,

     Sister Heidi Sorensen

We got some nerf guns. They are so much fun after a long day at work.

 We LOVE this mug cake. It is the only thing that gets us through weekly planning each week. We save them for each thursday when we do our planning.

These are the sisters I live with. We have so much fun together!